In Targent's Wake
by Xenovia77
Summary: "Hershel Bronev died the day I first encountered them, and everything else I cared about followed soon after." Descole looks back over everything that was stolen from him the day Targent entered his life. (Oneshot)


_Will I ever write a oneshot that doesn't revolve around Randall or Descole? Probably not._

_Major spoilers for Azran Legacy and probably some other_

**Disclaimer: I own ****nothing**

**In Targent's Wake**

_Mum and Dad_

I was always particularly close to my parents; especially so to my father. People always told me that I was the spitting image of him, sharp and well-mannered with a keen knack for adventure. We'd spend hours sat together poring over textbooks. Mum would laugh and tell us to get to bed, and that "3:00 am is far too early for you to be up Hersh" but she'd always end up making a pot of tea and joining us.

I didn't know what to think when Targent arrived. The only thing I knew was to get away from them. To this day I still wish I'd had a chance to say goodbye to Mum.

And also to the man my father was before he joined them.

_Theodore_

I loved my brother more than anything; he was my best friend, my conspirator, my Robin when I wanted to play Batman in the garden. He looked up to me with gap toothed smiles and eyes that shone with happiness as he asked me if I wanted to solve a puzzle he made up, simple word problems that he'd worked on all morning. I'd always feign ignorance at the obvious solution, making him squeal in delight when I couldn't discover his answer.

It crushed me to see Theo leave. No, to see Hershel leave. Theodore didn't exist after Targent. I knew he would be safe with the Layton's; I wanted at least one of the Bronev's to be happy, even without the Bronev name.

_My new family _

It pains me to try and think about them, I've tried to forget most of my memories but they still remain in slivers at the back of my mind. I'd finally found a new form of hope only to have it cruelly stolen from me mere years later. My wife and I met when I was excavating a site in Misthallery, she was a fellow worker and we slowly bonded over our work and the beautiful scenery. We were soon wed and had a child in the years to follow; she was a curious girl with good head on her shoulders, I knew she'd grow up to be something truly brilliant.

She was gone far too soon, barely four when she and her mother were killed. There's always this feeling that they were killed by…. Targent's current leader, but this concept is too much for me to even consider accepting.

_Emmeline_

My cousin. Though I don't use this word in the literal sense, she was a girl from the village where me and Theodore lived. A lively child who had constant scrapes up her knees, covered in large yellow plasters, from her time outdoors. I'd seen her a few times when we were in the park, and I was shocked when I saw her with my brother, even more so when I found out about her links with Targent. I suppose they got to her family as well, though Emmeline clearly wasn't as lucky as I was.

I sometimes feel as if I should hate her, she spent time with my father than I ever did and she managed to keep up a successful disguise for three years to fool my brother.

But I can only pity the woman.

_Aurora_

The Azran girl was strange to me. Simultaneously naïve to the world and at one with it. She could seemingly walk across water and yet had no idea what an Ocean was. My feelings towards her were unexplainable. It wasn't love; I haven't been capable of that emotion for years. But we had an intense inquisitiveness towards each other, exchanged questions and squinted gazes; perhaps she knew I had ulterior motives. I wouldn't doubt she had that sort of intuition.

It tore me apart to see what Targent had caused for her, if they hadn't entered the sanctuary then we never would have had to sacrifice ourselves. But my father's ambition clouded his vision. If he'd just been more careful, or if we'd got there before them.

She could have lived.

_Hershel Bronev_

I've lost my entire life to this organisation. My family, my friends and even my identity. Hershel Bronev died the day I first encountered them and everything else I cared about followed soon after. They left their footprints everywhere they went, trampling whatever was in their wake. Papers say that Targent has disbanded, but I know there are rogue members, just waiting. Plotting to rip another child's life out of their hands in the name of business.

And I intend to take them down.


End file.
